Taiwan urges resumption of cross-strait crime-fighting cooperation

2017/03/13 21:56:33

Taipei, March 13 (CNA) Deputy Justice Minister Chen Ming-tang (陳明堂) on Monday urged China to resume cooperation with Taiwan on combating crime, based on an agreement signed between the two sides in 2009.

Chen was responding to a media report which said that because cross-Taiwan Strait relations have cooled since President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) took office on May 20 last year, Chinese authorities no longer hand over to Taiwan Taiwanese telecommunication fraud suspects arrested overseas.

Chen admitted that this has been the case since last year.

The Ministry of Justice will seek to negotiate with Beijing via various channels, in the hope of restoring the practice in which Taiwanese suspects are sent to Taiwan and Chinese suspects are sent to China, he said.

For its part, Taiwan's ministry continues to adhere to the 2009 agreement, as is demonstrated recently when it informed Beijing about the detention of a Chinese national last week for alleged espionage. But Chen said the ministry has not received any response from Chinese authorities.